Kategoriarkiv: Tanker

Idag er der Folketingsvalg

Jeg er lidt bekymret. Bekymret fordi et parti aktivt har meldt ud at de vil gå efter Folkepension og SU.

Jeg regner ikke så meget med at få brug for Folkepensionen. Der er tegn på at jeg nok lige kan spise af min opsparing, som jeg har lagt til side i samarbejde med bank og pensionsselskab før at der kommer en slut dato, men først skal jeg nå pensionsalderen og der er en lang vej foran mig.

Jeg er mere bekymret for besparelser på SU. Min søn studerer til Ingeniør. Han har valgt en linje i tillid til vores nuværende SU-system, hvor man ikke kan stå af efter 3 år og blive diplomingeniør. Det er 5 år eller ingenting!

Jeg er lidt træt af reformer. Min søn havde mere end 13 lærere i matematik. På Stengårdsskolen i Ølstykke fandt de fleste skift sted. Nogle år var der måske 2 læreskift. Folkeskolereformen er selvfølgelig en del af årsagen, men ikke den hele. Andre skoler i landet klarede sig med færre lærerskift. Der var bare noget galt med Stengårdsskolen. Kort at sige så startede han sin tid på HTX studiet med huller i pensum som udgjorde en trussel mod hans fremtidsplaner.

Jeg har ledt i mit arkiv. Jeg tog en samtale med min søn på det første på HTX. Jeg spurgte ham om han virkelig ville det. Det ville han. Så fandt jeg penge – nærmere 13.494 kroner til MentorDanmark. Hele det første år imens han studerede på HTX sad han 2 timer om mandagen efter skole sammen med sin mentor og i løbet af det år gik han fra at ligge i bunden til at ligge et stykke over midten.

Det kom med en pris. Han måtte opgive sit fritidsarbejde. I forvejen måtte han opgive af få musikundervisning, fordi vi havde noget sygdom i familien, som kommunen synes at vi skulle betale for. Men han lærte at spille på guitar alligevel. Ved studere online! For min søn kan når han vil.

Men hans CV ser tyndt ud for netop som han havde fået lært matematikken kom vi til pandemien. Nu var han for gammel til at få arbejde i et supermarked. I Danmark har man groft sagt kun cheferne, folk på støtteordninger og unge under 18 år til at arbejde i supermarkeder på grund af omkostningsniveauet.

På grund af pandemien var spisesteder og diskoteker lukket. Så sabbat året som blev brugt på matematik-kursus bød ikke på så meget arbejde udover lidt tjenerarbejde ved private konfirmationer. Gode råd var dyre for det koster at flytte til en anden landsdel. Igen var vi så heldige at vi gennem nogle år havde lagt penge til side til en børneopsparing der udbetales næste år, så han har lånt penge af mig mod at jeg får hans børneopsparing.

Nu bor han så på Fyn. Det er svært at få arbejde derovre. I provinsen kan man ikke lide “smarte” Københavnere. Man vil hellere ansætte sine egne. Det kan jeg fuldt ud relatere til.

For 25 år siden flyttede jeg fra Sydsjælland til Ølstykke. Jeg er stadig fremmed. Jeg har en social omgangskreds som er min familie og mit arbejde. Ølstykke er en pendlerby hvor befolkningen forlader byen om dagen for at køre ind til København.

Jeg klager ikke for jeg har mit arbejde og min familie. Hvis jeg overlever til jeg trækker mig tilbage, er det ikke sikkert at jeg fortsætter med at bo i Ølstykke. Måske vil jeg finde et sted ude på landet hvor jeg kan dukke hovedet den sidste tid.

Men jeg bekymrer mig hvis SU forsvinder for unge der skal studere 5 år istedet for 3, hvor så bliver det rigtig dyrt at afdrage 2 års forbrug. Hvorfor skal vi ødelægge den eneste sociale ydelse, som rummer et element af gevinst for samfundet? SU er en investering? Som alle investeringer er der en risiko for tab, men bestemt også gevinst. En gevinst som jeg ikke mener at vi kan undvære.

Jeg spørger bare hvorfor. Hvem kan give mig svaret?

Tomorrow is V-day

Tomorrow at this time, my life might be destined for an end or my life will go on. I do not know. Tomorrow I will take the first shot of the vaccine against Covid-19.

Why has it taken so long for me to decide?

First of all, I am at the end of my life if I look at past male ancestors.

My father died aged 63. My great-grandfather died at the age of 48. Heart inflammation which over time weakened the entire system for it to shut down in the end.

There is not much left for me. I hope to spend the last few years doing the work I do now for Talentsoft in any capacity. I hope to live long enough to see my two children making their way in life. I hope for some quiet evenings relaxing together with my wife outside our home waiting for the inevitable but recent years have proven to me that nothing is certain.

Back in 2012 my education as Merkonom which at some sites is translated into english as bachelor of commerce was abolished by the Danish government. I, who back in 1986 decided to support my local community and not abandon my birthplace in the countryside, only had the option to study for Merkonom after I graduated from the Gymnasium. Should I have aimed at higher goals, I should have left my family and friends in Naestved and left for Copenhagen to live in tents like most new students do while they either find a room with some private person or are able to pay a bribe to enter some of the housing firms up there.

I had no knowledge about which kind of student grants I could get as a student. All the counselors at the school had spoken about finding a training position in a firm to learn a kind of trade and then study for the Merkonom title after work. So for a number of years, I worked daytime in Taastrup commuting for an hour and then returned to Naestved eating my dinner on the train and spent hours at the school in the evening.studying. It was not a lot of spare time I had but back then I only had like 30 m2 to live on. A single room where the kitchen was on one of the walls and small hallway with access to my private toilet. I prevailed and earned two titles in both accounting and IT.

It formed my career and it basically lasted until 2014 where my previous workplace Formula which was one of the largest printing companies shut down. Now I found myself without any merits as the Merkonom title no longer existed and the skills I had authorized with Microsoft Dynamic Business solutions XAL and C5 also on their way out as the systems used for ERP in Denmark.

I had to shift focus and I switched to the HR area where I took an entry position as customer care representative working for Talentsoft. Years later I transitioned into becoming a technical consultant. But it was back to scratch living off the leftovers from supermarkets as the globalized work means that an amount equal to unemployment benefits are seen as a good salary in other countries due to differences in living costs and tax-systems.

Then in 2016 my life took an even worse turn towards the worse. A van did not respect the signs and took an illegal turn hitting me while I was commuting 30 kilometers to my work (Public transport was too pricey for me, also taking my car to work had become out of reach for a person serving in my position.). I was wearing a helmet and it saved my life.

While I recovered from the short-term consequences of the accident, the long-term consequences haunt me today. My teeth in the left side of my mouth died from the inside. The Dentist School in Copenhagen did their best but then the Covid-19 pandemic came making visits to the school difficult. It hurts on some days, but I have learned to live with the pain without using medication.

I now sleep using a ventilator. It seems that the accident somehow damaged my throat area. Sadly it is a Philips ventilator which over time can cause cancer. Philips has recalled the ventilators but the doctors at the hospital do not have the money to replace the more than 30,000 ventilators being used all over Denmark, so I have to continue using an apparatus which potentially can damage my health. This fate I share with the other users of the same branch of ventilators.

If you are not from Denmark, you will wonder why a seemingly rich country like Denmark does not have the money. I do not know much about politics, but I do know that Denmark no longer has the money to treat all kinds of illnesses. Some say that it is caused by our increasing funding of the European Union after England’s Brexit. I do not know. I know that I am alive today and so far (I cross my fingers) I have no cancer as far as I know. I am lucky. Denmark cannot afford to buy Spinraza which children suffering from a specific illness need. Unlike me who just lingers along, they suffer real loss of quality of life.

So that is my life today. Partly restricted due to my own poor choices in the past, the development of our society which digitized our society making printed items obsolete, the globalization which means a low salary, the traffic accident where I am partly an invalid. So I had to think hard if I wanted to take the risk of taking a vaccine which had the potential to create heart inflammation which was the very cause of demise of many in my family.

I decided to take the vaccine despite this risk. So that is the reason tomorrow is V-day for me. A day marking the end for me or the day which allows me some movement in the last few years of my life in a world becoming more hostile towards unvaccinated people.

Today I will rest and build myself up for tomorrow. If things do not turn out good for me, at least I can look back to a hell of a ride. I wish you all a pleasant Sunday!

Ok. I am trying

In order to remain fit after my 2016 traffic accident, I am working out in a fitness center beside walking when possible instead of using my car. It has not been easy but I have started to put it into my schedule as an appointment so it becomes the norm.

As the figures tell. There is room for improvement